BRISTOL – Roger Williams University School of Law ranks 13th in the Northeast for graduates finding employment, according to numbers analyzed by the Boston Business Journal from area schools.

Seventy-seven percent of Roger Williams law school graduates in 2011 found employment within nine months of receiving their degree at a median private-practice salary of $48,500.

Graduates of number-one school, Columbia Law School in New York, found such employment at a rate of 97.6 percent and an average private-practice salary of $160,000.

The American Bar Association maintains and makes available on its website employment data for each accredited law school in the United States.

Current ABA numbers show that 84 percent of Roger Williams University School of Law class of 2011 are employed, though that includes professional and non-professional positions. Eighty-three graduates, or 64 percent of the 128 2011 class members, are employed in a position that required them to pass the bar exam.

NALP, the Association for Legal Career Professionals, reports that the overall rate for the class of 2011 law school graduates is 85.6 percent, the lowest since 1994.

That report measures employment nine months after a standard May graduation.

New York University Law School trails Columbia Law School as second and Yale Law School ranks third.

Harvard Law School in Cambridge ranked fourth with 95.5 percent of its graduates finding employment and a median salary of $160,000.

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